Chapter 29

29

Reed called Silver while Jong-min and Jong-hyun inspected the troll sisters and tried to heal them.

I paced nervously, biting one of my nails. Zara and Zyra were my sworn sisters. We had no blood relation, but had made an oath to be sisters. They were part of my small, found family, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing them. Whoever hurt them was going to pay.

“Silver isn’t answering,” Reed said and looked at me hesitantly.

“I’m going,” I said and headed towards the door. No matter what happened to me, I would give my life to protect my grumpy, adopted father who did more for me than my birth parents ever had.

Grant grabbed my arm, stopping me. “You don’t know what’s happened. We need to talk to your sisters before?—”

“My father may be in trouble,” I said, my mouth widening to show more of my teeth. “I am going to go check on him.”

“What if Zyran and Zara are injured because Roman bespelled Silver and?—”

“I’m going,” I said and jerked my arm free. “You can come with me or you can stay, but you will not stop me.”

Grant scowled at me, clearly fighting with himself on what to do.

“Just go with her,” Jong-min said. “We’ll call if the twins wake up and we get more information.”

“Fine,” Grant agreed.

“Love, please stay safe,” Jong-hyun said.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Jong-min added.

I saluted them and ran out of the restaurant with Grant at my side.

The city was unnervingly quiet, much more so than normal for this time of night.

Grant noticed it, too. “Where is everyone?”

“I was wondering that as well,” I admitted. “All that matters is getting to Silver as soon as possible.”

“Let me fly us there, it’ll be faster,” he said, shifting into his dragon form. He grabbed me gently in one of his claws, and flew up into the sky.

I yelped and clung to his foot. Flying was my least preferable mode of transportation.

Though, as I looked below us, it did give me a great vantage point to see the town and it’s incredibly empty streets. Where was everyone?

Grant shifted as we were landing, causing me to fall for a brief period of time.

I screamed and flailed my arms, but he caught me a few milliseconds later.

After setting me on my feet outside of the bar, I looked around, taking in the destruction.

There was a huge hole in the wall, tables and chairs broken and scattered inside as well as outside.

Walking into the bar, we found the destruction was even worse.

“What happened here?” Grant asked as he pulled a broken pool stick out of the wall.

“Silver?” I called. “Silver, are you here?” There was some blood on the floor, but not a lot.

Heading around the bar, my eyes widened at the pool of blood there. Hurrying into the back, I threw open his office door and gasped.

Silver sat, bound in chains, his war ax in his left hand, blood dripping down his face from a deep cut on the top of his skull, and a snarl on his face. “I’ll kill you all!” he screamed and struggled against the chains. “I will kill every woman in this city!”

My hands went to my mouth and I took a step back, startled to find the kind male, my father figure, in such a state.

Grant pulled me out of the office and shut the door. “He’s clearly been put under a spell by Roman. I’m calling Theo.”

Wrapping my arms around myself, I took two steps farther back. Fighting against Silver was not a good idea. He was a warrior, after all, and had lots of battle experience. I mean, I had always wanted to fight him, but I also didn’t want to hurt him.

“Hurry over to Silver’s,” Grant said into the phone.

Something cracked inside of the office and Silver roared as he kicked the door open.

Standing in the open doorway, Silver spun his ax and smiled. “You should have run, little tiger shark.”

Holding out my hands, I said, “You don’t want to do this. I’m your daughter, remember? I’m your family. You would never hurt your family.”

He scoffed. “Family? You aren’t my family. You nor those troll witches.”

“He’s not himself,” Grant reminded me and set a hand on my lower back. “He doesn’t mean anything that he’s saying. It’s just the spell.”

I knew that, but it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt to hear the words come out of his mouth.

“Out of my way, Dragon, I have no qualms with you,” Silver said and made a shooing motion with his hand at Grant.

“You’re under a spell, Silver. I don’t know if you can break free of it, but you have to try. I know you, and I know if you hurt Kass, you’re really only going to hurt yourself. You love her and you don’t want to kill her.”

“She’s cost me thousands of dollars in repairs for all her stunts,” he snarled. “For what? A few hundred bucks off of the tourists? Why are you sticking up for her when she costs you so much pain? So many days and nights of torment? I remember you drinking yourself into a stupor because she wouldn’t listen to you, wouldn’t stay out of trouble, and wouldn’t admit her feelings to you.”

My breath hitched at the admission from Silver.

“That was over a year ago,” Grant said. “We have worked through our issues and we’re sworn to be mated.”

Silver’s eyes widened. “Mated?”

Grant and I nodded.

Silver threw his head back, set a hand on his stomach, and laughed so loud I flinched back. “You’re actually going to agree to be mated to … this thing ? You lot really have lost your mind. I’ve seen the girls who throw themselves at you. You could do so much better.”

“Listen here, old man,” I snapped and bared my teeth. “I love you, but I’m tired of your mouth. Also, I’m pretty sure you hurt my sisters, your adoptive daughters, and I think it’s time to shut you up and make you pay for the pain you caused them.”

He gripped his ax and smiled viciously. “Try it. I’ve killed hundreds of beings during my lifetime.”

My anger ebbed a bit as I softened my voice and said, “I know. I know how much it hurts you to have all those deaths on your hands. That’s why I know you don’t actually want to kill me. If you did, you would feel like my death had been the final piece to tarnish your soul, fully beyond repair or redemption.”

His ax dropped a bit, giving me the distraction that I needed.

Jumping forward, I slammed my shoulder into his chest while simultaneously grabbing the wrist of the arm that held his ax. With a sharp twist, I snapped his wrist bone.

He punched me in the side with his other hand as he roared in pain and the ax fell to the ground.

Grant kicked the ax away so Silver couldn’t pick it back up.

Jumping away from him, I let my scales flow over most of my body and shifted partially, including a tail. Dancing on the balls of my feet, I held my fists up, punching the air in quick jabs, and smiled wide. “What’s wrong, old man? Out of shape?”

“Kass, don’t taunt him,” Grant growled as he also shifted.

“Impudent uncultured child,” Silver growled.

“Grumpy old codger,” I bit back while smiling wide. I sure hoped he remembered this when the spell was lifted. It would entertain me for decades to come. I was fairly certain he wouldn’t look me in the eye for at least a week after the spell was removed and he retained his memories. Memories of me beating his ass and talking so much shit he couldn’t respond.

He tried to punch me, but I leaned out of the way of the jab and hit him in the stomach with an upper cut. He made a satisfying, “oomph,” from the hit.

I danced on my toes, throwing short jabs to his face and stomach, being careful of his unbroken tusk so I didn’t cut myself.

He roared in anger, darting forward to grab my hair, and jerked me forward as he headbutted me.

Stars filled my vision and I stumbled back, dizzy and disoriented. Shark skulls were made of cartilage and thus not strong against headbutts by bone skulled ogres.

Grant pulled me back as Silver tried to attack me again, and punched Silver in the chest, causing him to slide back through the puddle of blood and hit his back against the bar top.

Grant pushed me around the bar top, keeping himself between Silver and me.

“You always talk big, but you can never back it up,” Silver said as he shook his head, clearly disoriented.

“Please, old man, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I put it down when necessary and this little fight is not requiring a tenth of my focus.” Sure, I was dizzy, my head hurt, and I might have been taken out if Grant hadn’t intervened, but shit talking was one of my love languages.

Theo burst into the bar, panting, sweating, and for the first time, not wearing a wig. “Where is he?”

Grant and I pointed.

“Another woman to kill,” Silver snarled.

Theo sighed, marched forward, and slapped her hand against Silver’s cheek. “Shut up, you crochety, old, grumpy male.”

Silver slumped forward and passed out on the bar top.